Summary

The first research guide explicitly grounded in the rhetorical situation, THE WADSWORTH GUIDE TO RESEARCH, DOCUMENTATION UPDATE EDITION, encourages users to consider the impact of their audience, purpose, and context at every stage of the research process. With a focus on using technology more productively in research, this concise guide offers complete coverage of the "how" and "why" of researching, and the key research technologies important to success.

Table of Contents

Preparing for Research

Why Research?

Recognizing Research Contexts

Reflect: How Have You Conducted Research Before?

Identifying Research Purposes

Reflect: How Do Research Processes Compare?

Considering Elements of the Rhetorical Situation

Reflect: How Do Rhetorical Situations Compare?

Entering a Conversation

Techno Tip: Listen to Conversations in Progress

Research and Writing Processes

Processes and Rhetorical Situations

Myths about Writing and Research Processes

Writing Processes

Foundations in Classical Rhetoric

Invention

Researching

Drafting

Reflect: How Do You Write Best?

Peer Review

Techno Tip: Conduct Peer Reviews

Revising

Editing

Techno Tip: Read Your Writing Out Loud Proofreading

Reflect: What Are Your Writing Idiosyncrasies?

Publishing

Research Processes

Disciplinary Approaches

Write: Discover Disciplinary Patterns and Conventions

Identifying a Topic

Analyzing the Writing Situation

Taking Advantage of Kairos

Write: Identify Kairos

Considering the Rhetorical Situation

Write: Analyze the Rhetorical Situation

Generating Topics

Write: What's Important to You?

Write: Generate Topic Ideas

Write: Consider Audience and Purpose

Techno Tip: Use Technology to Explore What You Already Know

Exploring and Narrowing a Potential Topic

Techno Tip: Use the Internet to Explore a Possible Topic

Reflect: How Can I Make a Topic Manageable?

Write: Focus Your Research Topic

Developing a Research Question

Write: Write a Research Question

Situating the Writer in the Research

Reflect: What Is the Writer's Place in the Rhetorical Situation?

Your Knowledge of Your Topic

Write: Take an Inventory of What You Know

Research in Progress: Writing a Research Proposal

The Assignment

Features of a Research Proposal

Starting Your Research Proposal

Examples of Research Proposals

"Can I Have a Clone?"

"Is Breast Always Best?

Conducting Research

Finding Resources through Secondary Research

Conducting Research

Identifying the Information You Need to Find

Primary and Secondary Research

Conducting Primary or Secondary Research

Reflect: Should You Conduct Primary or Secondary Research?

Locating Resources

Specific Search Terms

Internet Search Engines

Expanding and Focusing Search Terms

Write: List Alternative Key Terms

Write: Develop a List of Search Terms

Search Engines and Web Directories

Techno Tip: Refine Your Search Results

Types of Resources

How Texts Change over Time

How Texts Are Reviewed

Library Resources vs. Internet Resources

Techno Tip: Edit and Review the History of a Wikipedia Page

Static Resources

Books

Write: Search the Library Catalog

Websites

Audio and Video Files

Microfilm and Microfiche

Syndicated Resources

Periodicals

Write: Search for Resources in Periodicals

Podcasts

Blogs and RSS Feeds

Techno Tip: Set up RSS Feeds

Dynamic Resources

Email Lists and Newsgroups

Social Networking Sites

Online Communities

Wikis

Write: Search for a Variety of Resources

Developing a Research Plan

Reflect: What's Your Plan?

Conducting Primary Research

Observations

Including Observation in Your Research Plan

Conducting an Observation

Write: Practice Observing Your Subject

Techno Tip: Record Your Observation

Interviews

Including Interviews in Your Research Plan

Conducting an Interview

Write: Draft Interview Questions

Techno Tip: Conduct Interviews Online

Surveys

Including a Survey in Your Research Plan

Conducting a Survey

Write: Draft Survey Questions

Reflect: Is the Survey Valid and Reliable?

Distributing Surveys and Collecting Responses

Techno Tip: Consider Online Survey Services

Ethical Considerations

Techno Tip: Gather Data Online

Interpretation of Data

Analyzing Quantitative Data

Analyzing Qualitative Data

Presenting the Results of Primary Research

Write: Decide What Type of Primary Data to Collect

Reflect: What Does Your Research Plan Look Like Now?

Reading Resources Rhetorically

Rhetorical Reading

Reflect: Are You Reading Purposefully or Rhetorically?

Write: Choose Resources to Read

Considering Context

Write: Situate a Resource Rhetorically

Annotating Resources

Write: Annotate a Resource

Techno Tip: Search Electronic Documents

Summarizing

Reflect: How Do You Write a Summary?

Write: Summarize One of Your Resources

Paraphrasing

Write: Paraphrase One of Your Resources

Selecting Potential Quotations

Write: Take Detailed Notes on a Resource

Starting to Evaluate Your Resources

Tracking and Evaluating Data

Verify

Copy

Techno Tip: Register with a Social Bookmarking Application

Write: Track Bibliographic Information

Techno Tip: Track Bibliographic Information Online

Evaluating Credibility

Respond

Evaluating Validity

Write: Evaluate Validity

Fill the Gaps

Write: Trace a Line of Research

Write: Make Cover Sheets

Understanding Plagiarism and Integrating Resources

Copyright

Fair Use

Ideas Versus Words

Plagiarism

Blatant Plagiarism

Careless Plagiarism

Integration of Resources into Your Argument

Introduction of the Source

Write: Introduce Secondary Resources

Incorporation of the Data

Quotations from Resources

Summarizing and Paraphrasing Revisited

Interpreting the Resource

Documenting the Resource

What to Cite

How to Cite

Write: Decide Which Citation Style to Use

In-Text Citations

Write: Practice In-Text Citations

Full Bibliographic Citations

Techno Tip: Use the Online Resource Center to Check Your Citations Research in Progress

Writing a Review of Research

The Assignment

Features of Reviews of Research

Starting Your Review of Research

Examples of Reviews of Research

Tsz Lee, Should All Forms of Human Cloning Be Banned?

John Lewis, Will Distance Learning Replace Traditional Instruction?

Reporting on Research

Constructing an Argument

Reporting vs. Arguing

Reflect: Is It Reporting or Arguing?

Write: Define the Rhetorical Situation

Responding to the Research Question

Write: Create a Cluster Map

Developing a Thesis

Write: Draft a Thesis Statement

Using Qualifiers

Reflect: Can You Recognize Qualifiers?

Supporting an Argument

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

Ethos

Write: Develop Your Authorial Ethos

Pathos

Write: Develop Emotional Arguments

Logos

Offering Evidence

Determining Warrants

Write: Understand Your Warrants

Providing Counterarguments

Including Rebuttals

Write: Develop Rebuttals

Write: Construct an Argument

Selecting and Incorporating Evidence

Developing Project-Specific Evaluation Criteria

Audience and Purpose

Reflect: Are You Addressing Your Audience's Wants and Needs?

Timeliness, Relevance, and Other Criteria

Write: Develop Evaluative Criteria

Resources as Evidence

Write: Evaluate Types of Resources

Matching Reasons with Evidence

Write: Draw a Cluster Map

Techno Tip: Create Clusters on the Computer

Write: Find Additional Resources

Sharing the Results

Arrangement of Your Argument

Common Argument Patterns

Evaluation

Comparison and Contrast

Definition

Proposal

Cause and Effect

Common Presentational Patterns

Least Important to Most Important

Most Important to Least Important

Chronological Organization

Write: Develop an Outline

Introductions and Conclusions

Reflect: Are You Grabbing Your Audience's Attention and Motivating Them to Action?